h my guide, who walked before me, carefully probed the ground with
his stick, he several times sank through half-way to the knee. These men
are, however, so much accustomed to contingencies of this kind that they
take little account of them. My guide would quietly repair to the next
spring and cleanse his clothes from mud. As I was covered with it to
above the ankles, I thought it best to follow his example.

For excursions like these it is best to come provided with a few boards,
five or six feet in length, with which to cover the most dangerous
places.

At nine o'clock in the evening, but yet in the full glare of the sun, we
arrived at Krisuvik. I now took time to look at this place, which I
found to consist of a small church and a few miserable huts.

I crept into one of these dens; it was so dark that a considerable time
elapsed before I could distinguish objects, the light was only admitted
through a very small aperture. I found in this hut a few persons who
were suffering from the eruption called "lepra," a disease but too
commonly met with in Iceland. Their hands and faces were completely
covered with this eruption; if it spreads over the whole body the patient
languishes slowly away, and is lost without remedy.

Churches are in this country not only used for purposes of public
worship, but also serve as magazines for provisions, clothes, &c., and as
inns for travellers. I do not suppose that a parallel instance of
desecration could be met with even among the most uncivilised nations. I
was assured, indeed, that these abuses were about to be remedied. A
reform of this kind ought to have been carried out long ago; and even now
the matter seems to remain an open point; for wherever I came the church
was placed at my disposal for the night, and every where I found a store
of fish, tallow, and other equally odoriferous substances.

The little chapel at Krisuvik is only twenty-two feet long by ten broad;
on my arrival it was hastily prepared for my reception. Saddles, ropes,
clothes, hats, and other articles which lay scattered about, were hastily
flung into a corner; mattresses and some nice soft pillows soon appeared,
and a very tolerable bed was prepared for me on a large chest in which
the vestments of the priest, the coverings of the altar, &c., were
deposited. I would willingly have locked myself in, eaten my frugal
supper, and afterwards written a few pages of my diary before retiring to
rest; bu